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The December 2017 “Team Canada” tour – now more popularly known in some quarters in the military as “the party flight” – has without a doubt been a major public relations black eye for the Canadian Forces.

The tour, with VIPs who were supposed to boost the morale of military personnel deployed overseas, turned into a fiasco. Some VIPs on the RCAF flight to Greece and Latvia were drunk and abusive to the crew, in particular the military flight attendants. The VIP civilian passengers, including former NHL player Dave “Tiger” Williams were exempt from security screening before the flight, and some — already drunk — walked on to the Canadian Forces aircraft with open alcoholic drinks in their hands.

Canadian Forces misled media and public on $337,000 taxpayer-funded VIP booze flightBack to video

Two individuals were so drunk they were reported to have urinated themselves. Video taken aboard the plane showed people — including a staff member from Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance’s office — dancing in the aisles of the aircraft with their drinks as a rock band played at the back of the plane. Others chewed tobacco, in violation of Canadian Forces rules, spitting the slimy juice into cups for flight attendants to clean up.

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The military flight crew was prohibited from approaching the VIPs except to provide them with service. The crew felt they couldn’t do anything to put a halt to the antics as these very important people were Vance’s guests.

Williams has been charged with sex assault and assault. He denies the charges.

The $337,000 taxpayer-funded trip was planned by Vance’s office. Vance okayed the booze on the RCAF aircraft.

We know all of this now.

But almost right from the beginning, the Canadian Forces/Department of National Defence Staff Public Affairs branch appeared to try its best to mislead journalists – and ultimately the public – on what actually took place on that flight.

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Shortly after Williams was charged by military police, Chris Henderson, the assistant deputy minister of public affairs, had a statement prepared to address Ottawa Citizen questions about the flight. On Feb. 13, 2018, according to Access to Information documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, he consulted with Vance and Deputy Minister Jody Thomas. He also informed a host of senior government public relations officials about what his branch intended to tell the Ottawa Citizen. Those individuals included Brig.-Gen. Marc Theriault, Col. Jay Janzen, Privy Council communications chief Ken MacKillop and Byrne Furlong who is on Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s staff.

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The DND/Canadian Forces statement to the Citizen suggested the VIP flight cost $15,000. The trip, it was claimed, went a long way to cheering up the troops.

Then came another statement for the public affairs branch. While alcohol had been served on board the RCAF aircraft the “intent behind this practice is to enable participants to enjoy a few beverages throughout the course of a long trip, not unlike a commercial flight.”

This statement was issued even though military documents obtained through the Access to Information law show that the senior leadership knew on Dec. 6, 2017 about the out of control drinking on the trip. This was a flight that involved more than a “few beverages” as the Citizen later discovered. And no commercial flight would ever allow the widespread abuse of alcohol that took place.

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I wrote my article, using the public affairs statements.

The next morning an email came into my inbox. “You are being misled,” the message read. Then another email came. And another. And another.

What the DND/Canadian Forces public affairs branch hadn’t counted on was that the details of the drunken VIP tour were very well known throughout the RCAF community, both serving and retired. Retired military personnel thought the abuse the RCAF crew had been subjected to by some VIPs was disgusting. They believed the Canadian Forces was trying to cover up the whole affair.

So they provided details to the news media. Very specific details about the out of control drinking and the copious amounts of alcohol on that trip as well as the other on-board antics, including the urinating passengers and details about the alleged sexual assault.

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Further statements by Vance trying to justify the on-board party to the news media just fueled the flow of information. “The band playing in the back of the plane, that’s some team-building for people who have never met soldiers before and are going to go into maybe a dangerous place,” Vance told reporters in making a case for the VIPs. “So, it’s not a Mardi Gras. It’s not a party. It’s a mission.”

After the general made that statement more emails arrived. Retired military personnel pointed out the ridiculousness of such a statement. Neither Greece nor Latvia is remotely dangerous.

After Vance suggested the antics on the flight were a one-time thing, another retired military member sent the Ottawa Citizen photos from a previous similar Team Canada “morale building” tour. The photos showed open coolers full of booze propped up on the seat of the RCAF aircraft. Another photo the Ottawa Citizen/Postmedia published showed Tiger Williams – on yet another “morale tour” – with beads stuffed up his nose.

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In April, public affairs Brig.-Gen. Marc Theriault wrote the Ottawa Citizen to complain about my reporting. The letter claimed among other things that I erroneously reported the date that Tiger Williams was to appear in court. Theriault claimed that the retired hockey player was never scheduled to appear on April 6, 2018.

But like many of the statements from military public affairs on the “party flight”, Theriault’s claim wasn’t true. The Ottawa Citizen had correctly reported the Williams court date since that specific date was provided by his lawyer. (And as often happens in the court system, Williams appearance was pushed off to another date.)

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But if the Canadian Forces hoped the letter to the editor would have a chilling effect on coverage of the party flight they misjudged.

The digging continued. The Ottawa Citizen eventually compiled the true cost of the flight. It wasn’t the $15,000 that Henderson and his staff claimed. Instead, taxpayers had laid out $337,000 for this drunken junket. That included the $24,000 to fly the four military flight attendants home on a commercial carrier so they would not be on board the RCAF aircraft returning Williams and the other VIPs to Canada.

Questions were raised why the flight attendants had to go home early on a commercial flight when Tiger Williams continued on the morale tour and got to travel back to Canada on the RCAF VIP aircraft?

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The Ottawa Citizen found the answer to that using the Access to Information law.

“Tiger was flown home in part because the investigation was not complete and no finding had yet occurred,” Vance wrote to Henderson.

Questions were also raised why Deputy Minister Jody Thomas had done nothing to rein in the out-of-control expenditure of tax dollars.

Retired military personnel continued to contact Postmedia/the Ottawa Citizen to contradict Vance’s claim that the party flight was a one-off incident. Other articles emerged about other drunken VIP excursions coordinated by the offices of previous defence chiefs. Again, taxpayers had picked up the extensive costs on those trips as well.

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Louise Des Roches, a staffer with Vance’s office who describes herself as his chief of protocol, would not comment on her planning of Williams’ trip or previous tours.

Copies of the internal military investigations into the “party flight”, were eventually obtained by the Toronto Star and the Ottawa Citizen through the Access to Information law. They provided even more details on the incident and warned that the safety of the flight had been put in jeopardy by the drunken VIPs.

An email arrived with links to a video made of the festivities on the flight, showing passengers dancing in the aisles as the RCAF plane was airborne.

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As more Access to Information requests were being prepared by journalists, the Canadian Forces decided in mid-October to release its final report on the VIP flight to the news media. Although heavily censored using the Access to Information law, that Canadian Forces investigation simply confirmed much of what the media had already reported about the party flight.

Ultimately, the Canadian Forces public affairs strategy to mislead journalists about the junket had backfired. The questionable statements issued by the public affairs branch, combined with the widespread knowledge among serving and retired military personnel about what really happened on the VIP junket, just further fueled leaks to journalists.

In his response to the internal investigation, Vance blamed the RCAF crew, who had been subjected to the VIP harassment and abuse, for leaking information about the party flight to the news media. He leveled his accusations against the air crew without any evidence whatsoever.

But the crew never leaked any information about the abuse they suffered. Instead, they stoically put up with the harassment and VIP hijinks because the VIPs were Vance’s guests.

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